Today is one of those days that makes me want to move to Canada, France, Spain, or Great Britain, because I’m just utterly disgusted by the Almight Dollar. I’m probably mesmerized by dreams of a greener grass, but today I’m willing to risk it–the weeds we’ve got here are downright rotten.

And then I go read Kate’s find that we’re wasting hemorrhaging (that means we’re really wasting) money on the new Medicare Drug benefit. Had we just expanded the VA system, senior medications could have been automatically available and at hundreds of dollars per year of savings. (This matters a lot when you’re on a fixed income.) Note: ask your doctor if there are alternatives to the medications you’re on. For example, the “Protonix” example given could be changed to omeprazole (Prilosec), a much cheaper alternative drug in the same class as Protonix and nexium.

And then to top it all off, I go see Syriana. A perfect end to a anti-American day.

I’m a firm believer in the mantra that you can judge a society by it treats its most vulnerable members, and frankly America, we’ve earned an F.

Comments

We certainly have plenty of problems with health care here in the US (as we report just about daily on Health Care Renewal, http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/).
But many of these are not unique to the US. We don’t report too well on other countries mainly because we don’t have the capacity to scan their news media very well, and we aren’t as familiar with their individual contexts. But still, note that the shoddy work done by commercial research firms in the US has its parallel in Canada.
See: http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2005/12/more-shoddy-work-by-commercial.html/
And also note that UK universities seem just as likely to put pharma companies’ interests ahead of their own faculties’ interests in the integrity of science as are US universities. See:http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2005/12/more-summary-and-much-documentation-of.html/
There are plenty of stories about troubles in Canada and the UK health systems that I haven’t posted about.
And some of the stories about corruption of the health care systems under Communism that still haunt the formerly Communist countries of Eastern Europe are just horrifying.
For example, see: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1365-2923.2004.01771.x
(Chaput de Saintonge DM, Pavlovic A. Cheating. Med Educ 2004; 38: 8.)
So, on one hand, we are all in this together, and maybe we should be thinking more globablly about solutions to dysfunctional health care.
On the other hand, I don’t think there is justification for anti-Americanism here.

graham:

Thanks Roy–I appreciate the comment. Was just feeling frustrated and overwhelmed yesterday.

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